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Enhancing campus transportation monitoring

University of British Columbia. Sustainability Office

The University of British Columbia (UBC) has been monitoring transportation to and from their Vancouver Point Grey campus since 1997. The data collected has been used to inform planning decisions such as land use and transportation planning decisions. 1 In October 2014, UBC Campus and Community Planning published a new Transportation Plan for their Vancouver Campus to consolidate and update existing plans such as the 2005 Strategic Transportation Plan. The 2014 Transportation Plan identifies the need for, and commits to developing, a “comprehensive” on-campus transportation monitoring system. Until now, Campus and Community Planning has been reliant on surveys of the campus population to approximate on-campus mobility patterns. Under the guidance of Campus and Community Planning, through the Social Environmental Economic Development Studies Program, and with funding from the Alma Mater Society’s Sustainability Projects Fund, I conducted a pilot study using Global Positioning System (GPS) data loggers to monitor on-campus transportation patterns. By completing this pilot study, I am able to make recommendations to UBC Campus and Community Planning on the feasibility of using GPS technology for on-campus transportation monitoring. The week-long pilot study, consisting of 10 participants, has collected sufficient data to show the positive and negative aspects of the technology. While I have not conducted the pilot study in a statistically representative manner, some abstractions can still be made from the data that I have collected. This report concludes with a recommendation that GPS technology does indeed have a place in a comprehensive on-campus transportation monitoring system at UBC’s Vancouver campus. I make several cautions as to the fine scale accuracy of the technology and the ease of working with the data, but show that the end product still has the level of detail necessary to inform planning decisions. Finally, I note that the implementation of an exciting new technology such as GPS catches people’s attention, which in turn could lead to increased public engagement in sustainability and transportation planning, if the message is well presented. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Text

University of British Columbia. GEOG 447; UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0108840

Arts, Faculty of; Geography, Department of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/